


The Luck O' The Doors

by yuletide_archivist



Category: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-20
Updated: 2006-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 07:23:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1638734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for le_etoile_noire</p>
    </blockquote>





	The Luck O' The Doors

**Author's Note:**

> Written for le_etoile_noire

 

 

The Luck O' The Doors

Hemlock made a nice perfume- she was sure that Jack  
would like it. Sally bent down awkwardly and began  
to pull up some of the crooked leaves of the hemlock  
plant. It had been almost three months since Jack's  
Christmas fiasco, and they had been quite close. Jack  
felt a little guilty for becoming so involved with  
Christmas that he dedicated much of his time to  
assisting the townspeople in preparations for the next  
Halloween. It was still a long ways off, but there  
was nothing the people of Halloween town liked more  
than working on new ways to cause fright. Yet,  
despite this dedication and newfound enjoyment in his  
heralded vocation- Jack spent almost every free second  
with Sally. It was hard to get away sometimes- and  
that was why he asked her to meet him today, for a  
picnic overlooking the graveyard, where they had first  
kissed. Sally had been so eager that she arrived  
early, and decided that while she waited she'd venture  
into the forest a little to look for the perfect sort  
of perfume to compliment the occasion. Yet now that  
she was out in the depth of the forest, she found  
herself breathing in the uncorrupted air and thinking  
about Christmas Town. It had sounded so wonderful,  
really, full of lights and sweet-things. Jack had  
found the door in this forest, somewhere, and a part  
of her could not help but want to see it for herself.   
She used to tell her creator that she was restless,  
and since she'd escaped him and begun seeing Jack that  
feeling had ebbed, but not ceased.

As she wandered through the thickening trees, and  
wondering if she really would find the place that Jack  
had found the door, she happened to see a small man  
dressed entirely in green digging a hole in the  
ground.

Sally brought a hand to her mouth in surprise. He  
was such a strange-looking little man. He reminded  
her of her creator in his stature, yet this man seemed  
much more jolly. He was whistling a airy tune as he  
dug, and he quickly pushed the pot inside the hole  
that he had created. The pile of dirt that was left  
from his frantic digging was rather large, so Sally  
approached him to assist- and to humor her curiosity.

"Do you need any help?" She asked carefully,  
teetering on her unsteady limbs towards him. The man  
sprang around in surprise, his leap creating a far  
greater distance from his feet and the ground than she  
would have expected possible from him. He eyed her  
suspiciously for a moment, and then offered her a wary  
smile.

"Why, if it isn't a little woman......you quite  
startled me a bit there, lassie. You're a fine  
looking girl, aren't ya? So.... tell me then, do'ya  
know what it is that I'm burying here?" he asked  
lightly, his voice thick with an accent she didn't  
recognize.

"No," she said quickly, to dispel his worries. "I  
just thought you might need a little help." she  
hesitated again for a moment, before saying quickly,  
"Excuse me- you must be- that is, you're from  
Christmas-Town, aren't you?" He didn't look quite  
like Christmas as she has known it when Jack brought  
it into town, but his bright green suit was unlike any  
green that existed in Halloweentown. It was a color  
that rarely showed up at all, and never so brightly.   
In response, the little man raised his head and let  
out a merry laugh that thickened the air.

"Christmas Town? Heavens no, lassie. In fact, I be  
Paddy, the ruler of St. Patty's Town! Oh- ye don't  
know it? Why, it's the best out of all of the holiday  
towns! Most of the year, that is..." He raised a bushy  
red eyebrow, considering her for a moment. Sally  
looked quite enthused by the idea of this new town.

"Another holiday town! Oh, I must tell Jack all about  
it....." she quietly began to muse to herself about  
Jack's excitement, and if it would go awry again.

"Why yes," he told her quickly, stealing a look at  
the half buried pot of gold. He quickly leaned down  
and pulled large heaps of dirt across it. When he was  
satisfied that it was well hidden, he sprang to his  
feet and ran a few feet further into the forest, into  
a grove of trees. "Come over here, lassie," he called  
back to Sally, "And I'll show you the St. Patty's Town  
door."

Sally approached, her eyes wide as she caught sight  
of the pictures on each of the trees in the circular  
grove. "This is... where he found it..." she  
whispered quietly to herself.

"Here it is!" Paddy called, gesturing to a large tree  
with a picture of a green four leaf clover on it. He  
opened the door and gestured to her. She walked over  
and peered inside, looking down into the immense  
blackness.

"Down there is a whole town...." she mused quietly  
and smiled softly. "It smells very..... alive in  
here. It's strange." She had no sooner finished  
saying this when the little leprechaun positioned  
himself behind her and shoved Sally into the open  
door, sending her tumbling down into St. Patty's Town.

"There," he said triumphantly, brushing off his hands  
and closing the door. "There's no way you'll be  
stealin my gold or trying to steal a wish from it if  
you're in that town, now will ye? Don't worry missie,  
they'll take good care o' ya," Paddy then turned on  
his black heals and headed out of the forest. No  
sooner had he made it out and spotted a large  
graveyard filled with pumpkin patches when he spotted  
a terrifying figure approaching him. This man was  
taller than any person he'd ever seen, and yet his  
limbs were horrifyingly thin. Where his eyes should  
have been, there were just dark sockets, and he wore s  
pinstripe suit that only made him look thinner.

"Hello there!" the figure called out to him cheerily.  
"I don't believe I've ever seen you before! Did Santa  
send by an elf?" Despite his horror, the leprechaun  
couldn't help but be enraged by this.

"Elf? Elf?? I am no elf! I am a leprechaun, you hear?  
Leprechauns are far more clever than any elf!"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Jack said quickly, smiling at him  
and holding out a hand. "I've never seen a leprechaun  
before. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Jack  
Skellington, the ruler of Halloween Town."

Paddy grunted, and reached his hand up to shake  
Jack's, best he could. "Well I'm Paddy, then, and I'm  
ruler of St. Patty's Town. Listen, Mister Jack, i've  
got some terrible news for ya." Paddy didn't like the  
looks of this town, and he didn't care for the look of  
the man in front of him. He sounded polite enough,  
but he was too sinewy, to unnatural. He thought he'd  
have a bit of fun with him. "I have to tell ye about a  
terrible creature who's coming to your town- you'd  
best beware. He's...... a giant, with red eyes, and  
horrible molting feathers all over him! He's got  
claws like swords and I'm telling ye- when he speaks,  
he makes the most horrible sound you'll ever hear! I  
swear it! It's like he's choking on blood!"

"Really?" said jack, his eyes growing wide and eager,  
and his voice resonating with it's usual elegance.   
"That does sound terrible! How exciting! I can't  
wait to tell everyone in town- they'll all want to  
come out and meet him."

"No, you don't understand, Mister Jack- he's no good.  
Really horrifying! He'll rip your town apart!"

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," JAck said with a  
chuckle. "But I'm sure my people here would love to  
learn a thing or two from someone so accomplished."

Paddy was getting annoyed. This skeleton-man didn't  
look at all troubled by his false declarations. "Well  
I'm telling ye," he tried one last time. "He's really  
terrible. He ransacked my own town, which is why I've  
left, you see. And then he came here after me- and he  
took a strange looking girl- bless me soul- I swear  
she looked like she was falling apart! All stitches  
and rags..- anyhow, he took her back to his town with  
him! Oh, how she screamed!"

"What!?" Jack cried, his expression suddenly  
darkening. "Sally- this thing took her? Take me to  
where he was- quickly!" The leprechaun grinned  
quietly to himself, and lead Jack quickly to the  
forest, and pointed to the tree with the large brown  
turkey on the front.

"In there," he announced. "went  
the monster." Jack frowned quietly and considered  
the tree, before approaching it and opening the door.   
As he did, Paddy snuck back to his own tree,  
snickering under his breath and bringing forth from  
the clover door all sorts of creatures from his own  
town, to run rampant in this new world. Leprechauns  
and faeries and banshees all slipped out, spinning  
around into the grove in a flurry of green and  
sparkles. The floor of the grove began to sprout  
shamrocks in waves, and the tree with the clover door  
popped out a full array of leaves in a gust of wind.   
Yet Jack was halfway in the Thanksgiving tree, and did  
not see what was occurring behind him. He was just  
about to release his hand from the edge and go  
pummeling into this new town to find Sally when he  
heard her voice behind him.

"Jack, no!" She cried out quickly, and he spun around  
to see her mirroring him, just exiting the  
clover-covered door. Paddy's opening of it had  
allowed her to exit, as well. Jack blinked his eyes  
in surprise at her and at the strange creatures that  
were invading his forest grove. Sally was now in a  
bright green dress and was desperately trying to stop  
the creatures from exiting into the grove. "You!"  
Paddy cried angrily, and jumped forward to push her  
back down into the trees depths.

"Jack!" She yelled desperately, "there's a pot of  
gold buried just a few feet from here! They told me-  
find it and you can make a wish!" The leprechaun  
snatched her wrists and dropped Sally back into the  
tree. Jack's eyes grew wide, and then very angry. This  
little creature was letting his own world into  
Halloweentown! He was upsetting the world, and Sally-  
he was the one who had taken her. In a few quick  
strides, he stepped out of the grove and found the  
spot where the dirt had been recently upturned. A  
shrill banshee lunged in front of him and gave out a  
terrifying howl, to which JAck only bellowed back, the  
banshee looking startled at his magnitude of sound.

"That's not bad, really," Jack said mildly to her.   
"You should join us on Halloween." He then pulled up  
the ground and grasped the edges of the pot in his  
boney hands. "I want to make a wish!" he yelled,  
trusting what Sally had told him. The leprechaun  
appeared before him at once, his hands and arms bound  
by many tiny chains of clover. The other creatures  
all fell silent and still as their ruler fell captive.

"Ye want to make a wish?" the little man muttered.

"That's right," Jack said, his eyes cold and harsh.   
"I wish for you to leave this town, with all of your  
creatures, and not come back again until you learn the  
polite way to visit- and I want Sally back here  
safely!- and," he smiled a little more sincerely, to  
himself, with his final tacked-on request. "and with  
that- I wish for you to let us visit your world, just  
briefly, and have our picnic before letting us return  
to Halloweentown with no trouble." Paddy angrily  
struggled against his bonds, but nodded his head.

"Fine! Fine!" He protested. "Ye'll be gettin all of  
those things. Your wish is granted!" The moment he  
said it, his bands were loosed, and he grasped the pot  
of gold and ran back to the tree, jumping inside. All  
of the creatures that had begun to pour into  
Halloweentown now followed him back, slipping through  
the clover door and returning home. "Ye better hurry  
up" Jack heard the leprechaun's voice resonating  
inside the tree, and so he followed them, jumping  
inside.

The world dissolved into darkness and then a flurry  
of green all around him as he fell into a particularly  
hearty patch of clover. The other creatures were  
dispersing quickly, and Sally was standing in the  
field, looking at him. The sky was the brightest blue  
he had ever seen, and flowers were beginning to sprout  
within the clover.

"Welcome to St. Patty's Town," Paddy said a bit  
reluctantly, but proud of his world. "Don't ye be  
thinkin about stealing any more pots o' gold while  
you're here." Jack laughed and shook his head.

"We won't," he assured him. "As long as you don't try  
to steal this enchanting girl anymore." Sally  
blushed in embarrassment, pushing her hands together  
nervously. Jack walked over to her and smiled.

"That's quite a dress you've got on, Sally," he said  
warmly, looking her over and taking her hands in his.

"They... told me that it was illegal to not wear  
green in this world..... But I think they may forgive  
you, after stealing Paddy's gold. Besides... black  
suits you, I think."

Jack smiled softly at this and gently ran a finger  
over the stitched edges of her mouth. "I was worried  
when you weren't at the picnic spot- it's not like you  
to be late. Not now that you're free of the scientist,  
that is."

She laughed softly in return, carefully raising her  
eyes to look at him. "I was afraid you'd be  
worried.... but this world, Jack.... it really is  
beautiful, even if it's ruler is trouble. There are  
so many doors in those woods, Jack...." Her voice was  
wistful.

"And I'll have to take you through all of them, won't  
I?" he told her with a smile. "Does that interest  
you? Would you like to explore all the worlds of the  
holidays with me, my Sally? And learn what we can  
from them, to make Halloweentown even better and  
scarier than ever? Doesn't that sound grand?" His  
voice rose in his enthusiasm.

"It's wonderful, Jack," she watched him, amused by  
his boyishness sometimes. She loved that eagerness.  
"I'd be very fond of visiting them. As long as you  
always remember that you're the Pumpkin King."

He chuckled a little. "Oh, don't worry, Sally- you  
were right about Christmas. I should never have  
interfered.... But it was really something, wasn't  
it?"

"It was, Jack," she agreed. "You were."

"So were you, you know. Cleverest girl I've ever  
met," he told her, and leaned down to to kiss her.

They returned to Halloweentown that evening after one  
of the most cheery and brightest afternoons they had  
ever spent. The mayor was frantic that Jack had  
disappeared again for so long, but they assured him  
that everything was just fine- there were no plans for  
taking over St. Patrick's Day. Yet- they assured him  
this would not be the last time he and Sally would  
disappear to visit other Holiday worlds.

 


End file.
